New England Camp Cedarbrook

Friday, August 7, 2009

From the Pathfinder Division Director

Greetings Cedarbrook Nation!!!

When Tai asked me to write this blog entry I was so excited and I thought of all the stories I could tell you about this summer. God has been teaching all of us, Staff and Campers, so much about who he is and where he meets us. But then Week 6 started, which lead to my getting busy with camp. I forgot about the blog entirely until I had a rare moment of down time on Thursday morning. Then I felt so foolish. But here I am, and now I will tell you about all the amazing things that happen when you are Voyager/Pathfinder Divisional Director.The first thing you have to know about Pathfinder is our motto: “Pathfinder… it happens.” When you work with girls ages 8-10, things just kind of happen. You don’t own anything white, because you will be spilled on several times during the course of the meal. You always have Kleenex or paper towels in your bag because they will be needed several times a day. There is a stash of snack food in Soyster with your name on it because you know that on cook out night someone’s food is going to fall into the fire and you will have to give up that silver cloud that has been waiting for you so that the child does not in fact go to bed hungry. You will be told about all bodily functions and asked why for every possible scenario. But I love it.Really, I do. There is something special about Pathfinders and the God of all creation. He loves them like CRAZY and goes out of his way to be visible to them. And when you work with the Pathfinders you get to see God too. Let me tell you what I mean. This week in Pathfinderland our Morning Watch and Bible Ex have been about the Fruits of the Spirit. It is a great curriculum, but there was no Morning Watch to go with it, so I ended up writing the Morning Watch. Hours, prayers and tears later I printed it off and handed it out Monday morning. It looked like they all liked it and I got a little bit excited. Yesterday Loona (one of the Cabin Counselors in Pathfinder) told me about what one of her girls said to her at the end of Morning Watch.“Loona,” she said. “I did not do my Morning Watch…. Are you mad at me?” Loona, (with more grace than I would have been able to muster) asked why she had not done the Morning Watch, was it too hard? Did she not understand it? The camper replied, “No I understood it. I was reading the story that the paper told me to, then I got interested and just kept reading it. And it was so COOL!” The camper then proceeded to retell Loona all the wonderful things she had read.I ask you how AMAZING is that? The God of Glory, Creature of everything we can see and everything we can’t see, just came, just sat on the hill in the morning sun with one of his daughters and introduced himself. And this is not the first time he has done something like that this week, or this summer, or this year, or even at camp. God is always on the look out to catch us looking for him. Then he shows up in all his splendor. We are not the only ones out there seeking, God is seeking us way harder than we are seeking him. Our spiritual theme for the summer is Encounters with Jesus, we are looking at what we can learn from his interaction with people in both the New and Old Testaments and here is a modern day encounter, right here, right now. I have been on staff here since I graduated from the CILT program summer 2003, and every summer God makes himself clear to me in new and wonderful ways because I slow down and view the world with the eyes of my Pathfinders. The world from their view is so much more majestic than the eyes of a weary recent college graduate. There are all kinds of new bugs that must be studied and then remarked over. Weather or not dessert is watermelon or beaver houses takes on new importance. Everyday is a new gift, and they are waiting to explore it. What a wonderful reminder of what an awesome God we serve and what it can mean to have the Faith of a Child.